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This is sort of oddly reassuring that they invested just because they think home protection is a good market and not because they value the generated data.

dylan604 4y ago
No, that was just bonus
ActorNightly 4y ago
As far as data goes, amazon only really cares about the stuff you buy. Their advertising segment is growing, but even then most of it is targeted towards things sold on Amazon.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Amazon wasn't one of the companies implicated in PRISM, so there's that. But then again the Snowden leaks came fairly early in AWS's existence.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
walrus01 4y ago
> because they think home protection is a good market it does say a lot, however, about the current state of community policing, the rise of private "neighborhood patrol" security services, gated communities, economic disparities between upper middle class and poor, in north american society as a whole. and what trends that investors in home security technology startups see it going in.
- iosono88 4y ago
petra 4y ago
Who knows? Let's say they wanted to do some shady shit, is writing an email(with the possibility of discovery) on that, is the only way to go about it?
- dylan604 4y ago
  I'm probably more cynical than most, but I'm willing to allow that they seriously wanted to just get into security cameras quickly. It probably started "innocently" as that, but then once the deal was done, the others in the org could start seeing how to use things to their advantage.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    The security camera angle would help their bottom line, as porch thefts of Amazon packages have always been a big headache for them.
    - wahnfrieden 4y ago
      or for surveillance of their own workers
      - em_te 4y ago
        Amazon uses outsourced drivers do it would be surveillance of their partners.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      I was even thinking it would help their "alexa, open the door for UPS" home system as their point. Again, giving them the "good idea" initial thoughts before someone else took elsewhere. I really don't know why I'm being so generous to AMZN today
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
  No, but we've seen that even high ranking executives who really should know better really often do that. I would expect at least something that hints at it, e.g. the absence of another good reason, a hint at other reasons, "synergies with" mentioned etc. Of course, as you mentioned, there could still be such motives, but with this trending on HN I expected some bombshell where they more or less obviously state that, not such a mundane assessment.
ekianjo 4y ago
Two things can be true at the same time.
throwawaylinux 4y ago
Well Amazon are interested in breaking down of social cohesion and trust because it reduces the risk of unionization. Perhaps it increases crime rates or the perception of crime rates as well, also a win for a home protection business.
majormajor 4y ago
"Don't write the embarrassing parts down" is probably SOP for these sorts of things. But honestly, even from a non-nefarious motives perspective, that's one of the things that Slack and similar logged-forever-use-us-as-your-knowledge-base conversation tools scare me on. The risk of someone saying something that could be taken wrongly by a journalist or a court one day even if not meant that way goes up the more conversations you record between the more people.
- Mandatum 4y ago
  Most tech companies make use of short retention policies for this exact purpose. 18 months to 2 years by default, otherwise anything longer goes through an exception approval process.
ForrestN 4y ago
I don't know that we can infer that from this. They refer to a pre-existing (but here unstated) rationale for wanting to be in the camera market, which could include that it fits with some broader data strategy. I'm not saying that's true per se, but just that I don't think this really goes into much interesting detail about why they wanted to enter this market.
INTPenis 4y ago
Your naivete is endearing somehow. My view of corporate culture at that level is that they all know what they're after, it does not have to be said. They use politically correct language like growing their home protection segment but they all know that they will use any data available to make an extra profit. At the end of the day a business only has one goal, growth.
tumetab1 4y ago
An observant person knows that in any corporations there are things that are not to be written or implied, some are implied are others are written. "We should enter soon into the home appliance market" can mean "We have already privately discuss that we need to enter the IT equipment at home so we can gather home consumer habits at home not observable through purchase, credit card data and internet tracking". It requires a very detailed investigation of written documents, chats, management actions, private accounts, cross checks and all to really understand what such documents mean.

dylan604 4y ago

No, that was just bonus

ActorNightly 4y ago

As far as data goes, amazon only really cares about the stuff you buy. Their advertising segment is growing, but even then most of it is targeted towards things sold on Amazon.

Apocryphon 4y ago
Amazon wasn't one of the companies implicated in PRISM, so there's that. But then again the Snowden leaks came fairly early in AWS's existence.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

walrus01 4y ago

> because they think home protection is a good market it does say a lot, however, about the current state of community policing, the rise of private "neighborhood patrol" security services, gated communities, economic disparities between upper middle class and poor, in north american society as a whole. and what trends that investors in home security technology startups see it going in.

iosono88 4y ago

petra 4y ago

Who knows? Let's say they wanted to do some shady shit, is writing an email(with the possibility of discovery) on that, is the only way to go about it?

dylan604 4y ago
I'm probably more cynical than most, but I'm willing to allow that they seriously wanted to just get into security cameras quickly. It probably started "innocently" as that, but then once the deal was done, the others in the org could start seeing how to use things to their advantage.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  The security camera angle would help their bottom line, as porch thefts of Amazon packages have always been a big headache for them.
  - wahnfrieden 4y ago
    or for surveillance of their own workers
    - em_te 4y ago
      Amazon uses outsourced drivers do it would be surveillance of their partners.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    I was even thinking it would help their "alexa, open the door for UPS" home system as their point. Again, giving them the "good idea" initial thoughts before someone else took elsewhere. I really don't know why I'm being so generous to AMZN today
tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
No, but we've seen that even high ranking executives who really should know better really often do that. I would expect at least something that hints at it, e.g. the absence of another good reason, a hint at other reasons, "synergies with" mentioned etc. Of course, as you mentioned, there could still be such motives, but with this trending on HN I expected some bombshell where they more or less obviously state that, not such a mundane assessment.

ekianjo 4y ago

Two things can be true at the same time.

throwawaylinux 4y ago

Well Amazon are interested in breaking down of social cohesion and trust because it reduces the risk of unionization. Perhaps it increases crime rates or the perception of crime rates as well, also a win for a home protection business.

majormajor 4y ago

"Don't write the embarrassing parts down" is probably SOP for these sorts of things. But honestly, even from a non-nefarious motives perspective, that's one of the things that Slack and similar logged-forever-use-us-as-your-knowledge-base conversation tools scare me on. The risk of someone saying something that could be taken wrongly by a journalist or a court one day even if not meant that way goes up the more conversations you record between the more people.

Mandatum 4y ago
Most tech companies make use of short retention policies for this exact purpose. 18 months to 2 years by default, otherwise anything longer goes through an exception approval process.

ForrestN 4y ago

I don't know that we can infer that from this. They refer to a pre-existing (but here unstated) rationale for wanting to be in the camera market, which could include that it fits with some broader data strategy. I'm not saying that's true per se, but just that I don't think this really goes into much interesting detail about why they wanted to enter this market.

INTPenis 4y ago

Your naivete is endearing somehow. My view of corporate culture at that level is that they all know what they're after, it does not have to be said. They use politically correct language like growing their home protection segment but they all know that they will use any data available to make an extra profit. At the end of the day a business only has one goal, growth.

tumetab1 4y ago

An observant person knows that in any corporations there are things that are not to be written or implied, some are implied are others are written. "We should enter soon into the home appliance market" can mean "We have already privately discuss that we need to enter the IT equipment at home so we can gather home consumer habits at home not observable through purchase, credit card data and internet tracking". It requires a very detailed investigation of written documents, chats, management actions, private accounts, cross checks and all to really understand what such documents mean.